2. What is it?
● A design “North Star” is a visual output (a video, series of hi-fidelity designs,
etc.) that explains the high-level narrative of why an idea or concept will
improve people’s lives.
● It should be deeply inspiring. Hence, North Stars generally benefit from being
imagined a good ways out in the future
● It’s ‘stake in the ground’/ A ‘best guess’ about what the future might be
● The aim is to get everyone on the same page about what the idea is, why it’s
exciting and how we could get there
● It should aim to introduce significant new value into customers lives
3. What is it not?
● It’s not simply a redesign or reshuffle of existing elements
● It’s not science fiction, nor should the narrative feel like it doesn’t ring true to
people’s real problems, desires, or habits.
● It’s not about building the exact thing we might come up with - the world and
industry shifts too quickly for us not to have flexibility on final output or
deliverable
4. Why does it matter?
“The future doesn’t
belong to data, it
belongs to the bold”
Scott Galloway - NYU
“Can’t decide how you truly feel about the
future? Have Data and A/B Test take the
decision out of your hands. Don’t want to
invest long-term in something that has the
uncertainty of failure looming in the
horizon? Take the easy path instead with
a bevy of A/B Tests.”
Julie Zhuo - FB
“It’s more important than ever to
be clear, to be singular, and to
have a perspective, one you didn’t
generate as the result of doing a
lot of focus groups.”
Jony Ive - Apple
5. Ok, but what else?
● We need a rally cry to align us all
● We can help everyone engage in richer conversations around ‘tomorrow’
rather than ‘today’ which in turns helps with roadmap planning
● Inspirational / Motivational
● There’s more to a designer’s job than just shipping incremental improvements
/ BAU
● Fashion is re-birth
● Responsive forces our hand
● Good design creates the market and ideas are king.
● The best way to predict the future is to invent it
6. Where are we now?
● Internet penetration solid but slowing, however usage strong
● Mobile advertising has significant growth potential
● Revenue growth will increasingly come from emerging markets with lower
disposable income (initially)
● User control / generation of content is increasing
● Internet is becoming more visual - especially amongst younger audiences
● Video and particularly vertical video is growing and converts well
● Reducing friction for ‘Moment of interest’ - ‘buy now’ integrated everywhere
● Mobile messaging is huge and growing. The leaders have the capacity to
evolve into central comms hubs
● Drones. Growth 170% YoY, very global
● Huge change in workplace - millennials attitudes are shaping the entire
industry
Source: Mary Meekers internet trends 2015 report
7. The Mothership...
If you take 1995 as the dawn of digital eCommerce we’re now
starting to attract 20 year olds who’ve never known a world
without the internet. In 5 years time they will become our core
user base and their attitudes, behaviours and expectations may
be very different to our own currently accepted truths and mental
models of digital commerce design.
8. 2020
● What will the world / market be like in 5 years time?
● Follow existing paths / strategy and think of new ones that could disrupt
● Use the strategy pillars - Mobilisation, Globalisation, Personalisation, Customer
Experience
Customer Experience = Personalisation / Mobilisation + Globalisation
X GP M
14. Customer Choice (min)
‘Operator’ - Browse, Chat, pay
P
“Old: all software expands until
it includes messaging. New: all
messaging expands until it
includes software”
Benedict Evans - VC
“Your UI is your product's
humble compensation for
not being telepathic”
Morten Just - Google
15. Customer Choice (max)
Nike Flyknit
P
How might 3D printers or new
more flexible manufacturing
models reshape the level of
choice we can offer to
consumers?
16. Customer Choice (min)
Amazon ‘Echo’
P
“They’re trying to get you
50% of what you need to
50% of all households within
4 hours”
Scott Galloway - NYU
“It’s the cable pipe of
stuff”
Scott Galloway - NYU
17. Customer Choice (max)
‘Teleportation Fashion’
X
P
“To me, a world without color TV or
personal computers is an abstraction.
For a host of kids as of yesterday, so is a
world without VR.”
Josh Valcarcel - Wired
“We’ve been reading words for
hundreds of years, listening for
thousands but drawing for millions”
Scott Galloway - NYU
19. MY
ACCOUNT
Path of Personalisation?
MY PROFILE MY LIFE?
‘ASOS_ByIain’‘Iain’s ASOS’
‘Iain’s Account /
Orders’
MY SITE
VR? ‘A Digital Life’
Personalised /
Adjusted
Curated / Distinct The ‘Digital Me’
MIN MAX
Product Products Interface
20. Wearables / ‘Micro-interactions’
Must think harder
X
M
No-one has killed it just yet
No one is using the watch
as a primary interface /
only interface
Most have simply shrunk
apps down to fit the watch
A change in context or
technology most often
requires a different design
approach
23. Freelance / UGC Commerce
‘The rise of the individual’
“We’re seeing the rise of the individual.
Workers + consumers are becoming the innovators. They
are rewiring and rewriting the playbook, disrupting the
market to add flexibility and efficiency into their lives.
This is much deeper than traditional notions of community
and broadcasting. This is about millennials attitudes to work,
and the opportunity for user controlled platforms in an on
demand 24/7 mobile economy. They are increasingly going
to be in the driving seat around product, content & service
and we need to plan for that”
X
M
We should be thinking about
Platform + product
24.
25. What happens when a person becomes a
business?
“...who becomes a retailer and
who becomes a warehouse?”
Scott Galloway - NYU
26.
27. Let’s Imagine...
● Drones are common and have become an important last mile delivery
mechanism as well as a way to achieve a multitude of tasks / act as general
‘life support’.
● The web has moved to become incredibly visual, almost ‘cinematic’ in
appearance and interactivity has enabled us to build almost ‘living /
breathing’ experiences.
● Wearables have extended way beyond the wrist and are standalone rather
than simply companion devices
● VR has become a new computing and interface paradigm in its own right
with several distinct flavours (augmented VR, Immersive VR etc) It’s
changed the game on what ‘browsing the web’ and ‘online’ actually means
● Mobile messaging has disrupted the mobile OS platforms by becoming
ecosystems / OS / a distinct experience in their own right (OS within OS?).
● It’s tough to tell if the the brand serves the user or user serves / is the brand
such is the disruption that’s happened within traditional eCommerce models
28. The real mothership!
● Disruption, disruption, disruption!!!
● Screen size growth is one thing but it could actually be more about platform
/ experience / UI growth with many more distinct flavours than the current
Mobile vs. Desktop vs. app paradigm / model we’re all familiar with. There’s
growth in the ‘ends’ of the experience and this will drive innovation in UI
thinking
● Think you’ve seen gesture control? Think again
● There is nowhere Apple cannot go. It could launch sunglasses, Clothing,
Luggage, Jewellery, Cars (already underway) or all of the above. We don’t
see them as a direct competitor but maybe we should
● The future of wearables is a quest for human enhancement
● There is no offline. We’re all on crack but just don’t know it
● We need to think about ASOS as ‘a platform’ rather than simply ‘a shop’
Some of the most valuable recent startups add significant supplementary
income into customers lives.
● Personalisation is going to be so so so pervasive
● Watch out: The cloud hardly ever comes from the point on the horizon that
you're currently looking for it. (especially in tech)
30. Next steps / Output
● Pick a single track or look for cross over between tracks
● Research the hell out of it but please please don’t use quant!
● Ideate and iterate - rinse and repeat
● Tell the story - storyboard / series of hi-fidelity images / movie etc that
describes the experience someone has when you achieve the end state
of the vision.
THINK BIG!
